I don't believe Lee fetches only Aumont and Gillies and I think the Jays want Aumont and a young SS. So, I still think it's going to end up as:

To Sea: Lee

To TOR: Aumont, Triunfel, Taylor, D'Arnaud

To PHI: Halladay, TOR reliever, Gillies + $6MM

From Phillies Perspective:

Lee, Taylor, D'Arnaud

for

Halladay, TOR reliever, Gillies + $6MM

Keep Blanton, Happ, Drabek & Brown.

I haven't been paying attention that much today until now, and god damn, I wish I hadn't. All of today, the sports journalism world has made the Balloon Boy media fracas look like David Halberstam.

whatever I'm going to bed...I hate life...I hope we've signed Juan Castro to a fucking extension by the time I wake up...Fuck You Baseball

Please stop doing these.

"Terrible trade. Who did we get?"

Woody wrote:Stark: "They (Blue Jays) had to make this deal."

WHAT DEAL? THERE'S NO DEAL? NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING YOU DONKEYS HAVE NAMED EVERY PLAYER IN THE PHILS' MINOR LEAGUE SYSTEM

"The Blue Jays had to trade Roy Halladay for a slew of mystery players"

kimbatiste wrote:Please stop doing these.

agreed

Now that we probably won't get anything new until tomorrow, here are some things I find strange.

1. If none of the Mariners prospects are going to Toronto, then it means that the Phillies love Aumont and Gilles, if those are the two guys who we're getting. I can see why they'd like those guys, but its odd that they couldnt find a better return elsewhere. I can understand if Toronto originally wanted Aumont, and that's why we engaged Seattle, but if Toronto no longer wants him, why aren't we actively shopping Lee?

2. When a major trade happens, normally one major outlet like ESPN or Fox will break the story, and then that exact same story is regurgitated by the other media outlets. There isnt much mystery. But in this case, nearly every report has been different, and there have been like 15 players named in the deal. I understand these trades are complicated, but how can the list of names not been confirmed yet? Seems very weird.

3. Aumont had arm trouble last year (his delivery sucks, not hard to believe he had arm trouble), so maybe one of the holdups has to do with him passing a physical.

4. Its awesome that Halladay really wants to come here. I mean, you see a dickhole like Smoltz trash our park, and then you see a real man say he wants to come here and be a part of this team. That feels good.

5. At least we're trading Lee back to the AL.

Can we trade JFL's sketch pad to Toronto?

Fine. I'll take my scratch pad and go home.

trading lee also means we lose his draft picks who would probably be rated higher than these two chumps anyways. this cant be real.

so seattle would get the picks instead so it pretty much means they get lee for nothing and upgrade their farm system.

i guess this time of year people do get a giving spirit.

This is what I don't get. If this isn't a three-way trade, why do we have to trade Lee right now? Do the Phils think they'll have no leverage once teams know we're 15 million over budget? Wouldn't it still be possible to cut payroll without trading Lee?

I don't believe any report that has us trading Lee without any of Seattle's prospects going to Toronto.

Since both of these trades seem to be mutually exclusive, with nothing but Philly prospects going to TOR and the SEA prospects coming here, why wouldn't we call up LAA to see if they have an offer?

I mean, they just lost out on Lackey and Halladay, and are about to see a division rival significantly improve...

What would we have to lose?

The only thing I don't get about the deal is the inclusion of Drabek. It puts the deal completely over the top as pretty much absurd.

Someone on philliesphans posted this as the latest ESPN report (didn't see this elsewhere in the thread, apologies if I missed it):

Latest on ESPN ticker(reports, not done):

To Toronto: RHP Kyle Drabek OR JA Happ, OF Michael Taylor, C Travis d'Arnaud
To Seattle: LHP Cliff Lee
To Philadelphia: RHP Roy Halladay, RHP Phillipe Aumont, another M prospect.

Perhaps the holdup is that the Jays want Drabek and the Phils will only give Happ...maybe this falls apart yet (doubtful)...

Donald, Carrasco, Marson, Knapp, Happ/Drabek, Taylor and D'Arnaud for halladay, Aumont and Gillies...speechless...

12/14/2009, the end of an era

Wow, if this is true, he really destroyed the system in about 6 months while hardly improving the team at all. Worse, he screwed us down the road because we now no longer have the cheap pieces to fill in over the next few years.

Not only is he in love with veterans, but he's soooo in love with a small group of veterans that he focuses on them until he can get them, no matter what the cost. He should have been happy with the trade this summer, but he had to ruin it. It's not just the prospects, we also lost two draft picks. We're going to pay Halladay 20 million a year or so. With the large number of quality pitchers available next year, I think we could have found one for under 20 million, so the money thing doesn't hold water, imo. He just wanted Halladay. Period. And he's too dumb or shortsighted to realize that he's gutted the system for a small upgrade. It's a disaster as it is, but if Taylor or Drabek turn into studs, it's a catastrophe. The team's player development will need to work their tails off to make up for the past few months.

Maybe all of this will turn out to be wrong, but there are too many people saying similar things. Let's put it this way, when is the last time so many sportswriters got the trade pieces THIS wrong? Either they're mostly right or it's one of the biggest mistakes I've seen from this many writers.

The only reason to do the very worst incarnation of this deal would be the payroll being capped. It seems very weird that the owners would haggle over something 10 million after 2 straight trips to the World Series. Without running the numbers, that sounds an awful lot like short term, small-minded business sense. It does not sound like MLB's biggest growth franchise or whatever.

Didn't I? wrote:This is what I don't get. If this isn't a three-way trade, why do we have to trade Lee right now? Do the Phils think they'll have no leverage once teams know we're 15 million over budget? Wouldn't it still be possible to cut payroll without trading Lee?

I don't believe any report that has us trading Lee without any of Seattle's prospects going to Toronto.

Yup. Puzzling. Hope they're wrong.

iladelphxx wrote:Since both of these trades seem to be mutually exclusive, with nothing but Philly prospects going to TOR and the SEA prospects coming here, why wouldn't we call up LAA to see if they have an offer?

I mean, they just lost out on Lackey and Halladay, and are about to see a division rival significantly improve...

What would we have to lose?

Nothing. Please do this. Stop the madness.

What'd Trent say earlier about a this making a happy thing sad. Nail on the head.

I was stuck at work late then went holiday shopping. i got a series of texts from friends and relatives telling me that we were trading lee for halliday. then lee and drabek for halliday and gilles. From there I just assumed it was a lot of media nonsense.

Reading on it now, it mostly seems like media nonsense, but reading what these "sources" are saying is horribly depressing. Why would they give up so much for so little? It just doesn't make sense; with all the smart moves this management has made, i have trouble believing reason and logic would go out the window now.

I'm going to have a beer, watch Zoe Saldana on letterman and refresh twitter, philly.com, backshegoes.com and si.com like a madman.